The Saga of Olympus: Surviving New York
by Solar Grace
Summary: Story One: Meredith's life turned upside down during a family outing to NYC. W/ the city asleep, ?s about her mother's past, and her family's future are thrown up in the air as new friends make themselves know. Reworked
1. Green Hair and Daydreams

_Disclaimer: All the proper rights go to the proper people. All the stuff I created belongs to me. I've reworked my Camp Half Blood series. Some details are the same, and others are **very** different. Some adult themes are present; however I will try to keep it PG13. Also note that I am only posting the reworked series, not any of the spin off stories._

_**Surviving New York**_

**Chapter One: Green Hair and Daydreams **

For the record, I've always felt that there was something different about my family. We always seem to find ourselves in odd situations, but somehow my mom has continued to get us out of them.

Normally she would scream at me to get my brother to the car, or to close my eyes and sing at the top of my lungs. We would be having a nice picnic lunch or visiting a historical landmark when all of a sudden my mom would get an alert look on her face. Her grey eyes would sharpen and her features would tense and almost become robotic.

We would have to stop whatever we were doing and she would order something like, 'run and don't look back', or 'take care of your brother!' or, 'Meredith find a group of people, you'll be safe in a crowd.' If we were lucky mom would find us right away, spray us with a bottle of Febreze and then take us to the YMCA.

See, the YMCA is our safe haven. Mom makes us go there every morning and then when she comes home from work. We spend about a half hour to an hour in the pool, air dry, and then leave. Ugh, it's become such a pain now that I'm high school, but at least during swim season, I have to be there before school anyway.

So yeah, anyway when I'm not smelling like Febreze, I reek of chlorine. 'Soak in the water, Meredith, let it fill up your pores,' or 'Trent, make sure you get your hair wet," something like that. Mom normally goes swimming with us.

I'm in the water so much, that nearly everyone calls me Mermaid.

The girls at school would make fun of me by asking me, how was my trip to Atlantis? Or did I find Nemo yet? The worst is when the water turns my blond highlights green. Then I look like I have muddy grassy hair. At least with Trent, when his hair turns green, it looks like its to support his seasonal sport. But for me... well... in order to survive the nasty assault of name calling, I normally roll my eyes, or do the best that I could to ignore them. Showing emotion makes things worse, and turns you into a target. Normally the nasty girls would get bored and go back to talking about themselves, the latest fad, or they would simply start making fun of someone else.

My brother, Trent, isn't as disciplined as I am. Sure he does fine when we are enrolled in a martial arts class or fencing lessons, but in school... he's one of those kids. You know one of the kids that the teacher learns their name within five minutes of the first day of school.

Breathing exercises and squeezing a stress ball just doesn't work for him. Luckily, mom got us both tested by child services to get an I.E.P. (Individual Education Plan). This way the teachers have to be more patient and give us certain allowances.

Trent is allowed to take a walk at least once every half hour. He has to sit next to a window to soak up the vitamin D from the sunlight and he can move to the back of the room so that he can fidget as much as he wants without distracting the other kids. At least he soaks up his lessons like a sponge and maintains average grades. So, since he calls me Mermaid, I tend to call him Sponge.

We have one last saving grace as far as school goes. My mom allows us to wear her special pair of glasses. She told us that they were created by Benjamin Franklin, a maternal relative of hers, and that we were allowed to wear them whenever we were reading. Which is great, because for whatever reason I can always find them when I need them most. Otherwise the letters on my paper act like they're in the Olympics performing a balancing beam routine. I hate looking stupid in front of the other kids so being able to read without having to dissect each word is truly wonderful.

Those were the good old days. Life was much simpler and I wasn't aware of how crazy and special we really are. Don't get me wrong, we've had close calls, especially when I've seen really strange things, like the time when my grandparents were killed in a car crash... It's only recently that I learned what really caused the crash, but that is too upsetting to think about right now...

I have to look at the positive side of life. Like mom says, 'we have our health, Meredith. That is a blessing in itself, and most importantly we have each other.' She's totally right, of course, though I do miss my grandparents...

Well, anyway there's me, Meredith Shelly Glew. I just turned fourteen last February. I enjoy swimming and drawing. I also love watching the history channel and playing strategy role playing video games with my thirteen year old brother, Trent. He drives me crazy at times, but he's cool. I guess we have the typical sibling relationship.

Then there is my mom, Sophie Penelope Glew.

Mom's had a rough life. Back when she was in high school her parents were going through a real rough patch. My grandmother was always fighting with my grandfather about her. Mom never said what they fought about, just that it was about her and that it was tearing their marriage apart.

It got to a point where my mother decided that the only way to save their marriage was to do something so dramatic that it would pull them all back together. So, she decided to _think_ about having me. Yeah, you heard me, she _thought_ about having a baby in high school.

Personally, I think that was a pretty unwise thing to do considering the risk that was involved, but she said that after she _thought_ about it, she couldn't _unthink_ it. She tried of course, whatever that means, but what was done was done, and that's final. So here I am.

Grandpa always said to me that we have to be very careful about the choices we make in this life, because the smallest decision could change your entire future. He also had me promise not to _think _about making any babies and that he prayed I didn't inherent my mother's special innate gift.

Confused? Yeah, me too, I'm just repeating what's been told to me. I hope someone explains it to me one day. Because I really want to have kids someday, and well, you kind of have to think about having them first, right? Well, whatever, moving on.

Lastly, my family consists of my foster sister Zillah Colleen O'Shea. Zillah is an interesting choice for an older sister. She has tight curly red hair, bright green eyes and ghostly white skin. She smells like lilies even though she doesn't wear any perfume.

We met Zillah almost two years ago when we were visiting New York City. So, yeah, I was twelve at the time, Trent was ten, and Zillah was thirteen.

Now, that was an interesting trip. My mom has been trying to finish her degree from college, for like ever, and part of what she needs to graduate is to take certain courses in the humanities. At that point she was taking Art History. So, we took a day trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Surprisingly, the trip was going according to plan. We live in North Jersey, so our drive into Jersey City only took about an hour. Then we hopped on the Path and took the subway to get to the museum. Pretty boring up to that point. Which, by the way, is a good thing.

What happened next was kind of creepy. Now, at the time I thought I was daydreaming. That happens a lot. Mom says it's because I'm a Pisces and we're lost in the house of the unconscious. Pieces are ruled by the planet Neptune. She said that my mind sloshes back and forth like the changing tides. So, I have periods of absolute clarity, and focus. Then I have periods where I'm lost at sea and nothing makes sense.

At this point of the trip I thought I was 'lost at sea.' I followed my family off of the subway and toward the stairs. Mom and Trent were several feet ahead of me on the stairwell as we exited the subway. I was trying to get a grip, see I hate small spaces, mom knows this, but thinks it's silly to fret over something so insignificant.

Well, anyway I was clenching my stress ball, trying to put my mind back into focus, when a group of tourists bumped into me. I gripped the grimy hand rail to maintain my balance, but in the process my stress ball slipped out of my hand and bounced several steps downwards towards the subway platform.

I jumped down the stairs to land on the platform the same time as my ball.

"Hey, watch it kid!" Some stranger pushed their way past me as I bent down to pick up my ball.

"Jerk..." I muttered under my breath, and then ran past him to try to catch up to my mom and brother.

Blinding white light scorched my retinas as the sounds of street traffic filled my ears. I held my hand over my eyes as I scanned the sidewalk looking for my mom's curly blond hair. They were about half a block away, and apparently hadn't noticed that I wasn't behind them anymore.

In the same direction as my family I noticed a man dressed in black a couple of blocks away. He looked like a blotch of dirt on a camera lens.

'Odd', I thought, 'it's summer, why would anyone ever think to wear that much material when it's so nice out?' I blinked and he was a block closer.

My heart started to race, that was impossible. Sure enough a second later he was standing next to my family. He stopped and turned towards them and cocked his head to the side. I tried to focus on his face but it was like a messed up photograph. Blurry in a hauntingly ghostly manner.

My knees felt weak as a sick feeling filled my stomach. Why was he staring at them?

My footsteps felt so heavy as if time moved in slow motion. Then the man in black was no longer next to my family, but was right in front of me.

The energy drained out of my body. I felt like curling up and taking a nap on the dirty sidewalk. I couldn't speak, couldn't move, and worst of all he placed his hand on the top of my head and then ran his fingers through my hair. "Pity... we could have made good use out of you and your family." He tilted my chin up to look at his blurry face and whispered, "perhaps if you survive I'll find something useful for you to do." I could swear he smiled, but my eyelids felt like they weighted a thousand tons. _"Sweet dreams_."


	2. I fall into the Pages of Sleeping Beauty

**Chapter Two: I fall into the Pages of _Sleeping Beauty_**

"Meredith! What are you doing? Come on, Mermaid, we're almost there!" Trent pulled me forward. He dragged me into the crowd toward the museum. I peered back over my shoulder expecting to see the creepy man in black retreating down the block, but he was nowhere in sight.

The rest of the day went rather smoothly. We ate our brown bag lunches in Central Park, and finished our audio tour of the museum afterwards. As it was starting to get dark, we decided to go back outside to eat our brown bag dinners. Yeah, eating in the city is expensive, so we packed our meals to save a few bucks.

We sat on the steps in front of the museum. I watched my brother tear into his sandwich and cringed. He had mayonnaise on all over his lips. He must have noticed my expression because he opened his mouth to show me all the chewed up food on his tongue.

"I think I'm going to be sick." I stuck my sandwich back into my bag.

"Trent! Chew with your mouth closed, no one wants to see your food." My mom scolded. She didn't miss much, and was easily embarrassed when we did dumb things in public.

Trent frowned and turned his gaze back toward the busy street.

I followed his gaze and sighed as I decided if I was still hungry.

The traffic below us started to slow down. Cars came to a complete stop while their drivers collapsed over their wheels. Pedestrians knelt down on the ground, curled up on their sides, and fell asleep.

It was as if we had fallen into the pages of Disney's Sleeping Beauty. The world as we knew it grew calm and quiet. "Please tell me I'm daydreaming again." I turned toward my mother.

Her mouth gapped open as she turned her alarmed stormy gray eyes toward me and my brother. "Back into the museum!" She grabbed her bag in one hand and my brother's arm in the other one. "Meredith, now!" She skipped steps as she sprinted towards the door. My brother started to complain as she dragged him behind her. "I can run too, ya know!"

I grabbed my bag, my brother's bag and followed them inside. There were people curled up sleeping on the floor, on the stairs, and against each other in all directions. "This can't be a daydream, it just can't!" I turned toward my mother as I hoped that she would validate what I was seeing was real.

Trent pulled his arm free from my mother's death grip. He rubbed his arm he spun around, "everyone is asleep! This is wicked!" He bent down and poked the person next to him. "HEY WAKE UP!"

I bent down and poked a different stranger, "so this is definitely real?"

Mom nodded, "yeah, this is real." She started to pace back and forth, "Think Sophie, what would Mother do?"

"She'd call 911," Trent suggested.

"Not, her, Trent... My real mother..." She shook her head. "Stay on guard, analyze the situation, form a plan, protect my family, retreat if necessary..."

"Everyone is sleeping, that's the situation." Trent stood as he replied.

"The question is why are they sleeping?" I responded. My thoughts drifted to what happened that morning. What if he was real too, and was he trying to warn me? Then why not just say, 'leave the city at once, go as far away as possible, don't look back.'

My mother noticed the features on my face change. "Meredith, did you have something you want to say?" I told her about the creepy guy and what he said to me. "I wish you had told me this sooner..." The worry lines wore paths in her nearly perfect complexion. "But what is done..."

"Is done." I finished.

After thinking for several more moments she finally suggested, "Let's see if we can find an employee bathroom."

"Why?" Trent moved closer to us.

"We need to find some odor neutralizer spray to cover up our sent."

"But we have car fresheners sewed into our clothes already, why would we need to spray ourselves even more?" He complained as we moved across the lobby.

"Trust your instincts, Trent. Do you honestly think we are going to be able to move around the city without anyone noticing us? We need a plan." Mom bent down and took a ring of keys and a slash card off of a security guard.

Trent's brows knitted themselves together, "It's a big city... but the grid pattern... we'll stick out. You're right Mom. I'm sorry."

"Don't be." She ran her hand through his sandy colored hair, and gave him a reassuring smile. "I want you go to the food court and start packing at least two days' worth of food for us." She turned toward me. "I want you to go back to the gift shop. See if they have any backpacks and extra clothing." She took out her wallet and pulled out a few twenties. "Leave the money on the counter with the tags."

Okay, so one might think, why just take what we need and be done with it. Oh no, not my mom. She is always thinking about her Karma. You steal something; something will be stolen from you. So, I didn't argue, I just did what I was told to do.

The night unfolded without any big events taken place. We took turns standing near the entryway keeping watch. While Trent was on guard some strange stuff happened.

"Mermaid, you have to see this!" He called over his shoulder towards where I had set up a make shift sleeping bag of old coats that looked like they were left behind by tourists over the years.

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, and jogged passed the zonked out tourists.

Trent pointed down the block. "Look at them, they're awake too!"

I squinted my eyes, in the distance there was a group of ancient Greek warriors running down 5th Avenue. "Wake mom, she should hear about this."

"Right!" He turned and ran over to our mother.

I felt an odd tugging in my gut, like I should be doing something more than just standing here. It wasn't long before I heard some fighting in the distance. There was no machine gun fire or bombs dropping, but there were screams along with roars. Sheets of metal clang together and echoed off of the buildings from multiple directions.


	3. Assessing the Situation

**Chapter Three: Assessing the Situation**

The next morning we decided to leave the museum. We washed up in the bathrooms, changed our clothes and packed a couple of meals from the food court. Mom told us to walk along the side of the buildings. Keep our eyes open and if we see anything to duck into the nearest doorway or down the closest subway.

We had no planned destination; we were just scouting the surrounding blocks to see if there was anything new to learn about our situation. Mom told us that there was magic at work, and that's why the city was asleep. When we asked her why we weren't affected she just pursed her lips and told us that she wasn't sure. I knew she was holding back. Whatever the reason, it had to be a good one.

After a while we decided to take a break. I don't know much about NYC, so our current location was a mystery to me. I tried to keep track of all of the different turns that we took, but after a while the scorching summer sun did a number on my senses. It was just too much, I really wanted to jump into a pool of water, but knew that was impossible.

Mom decided the safest place for us to hide out for a while would be a church. We entered the closest one. The air-conditioning kissed my cheeks and I paused to let it wash over me. Trent pushed me across the threshold and commented, "We need to stay out of sight, remember?"

"Yeah, I know." I gloomily admitted. For a change Trent was acting like the older sibling and I was the little kid that needed to be dragged around by the hand.

While we ate our lunches, mom and I discussed what we should do for the rest of the day, head back to the Met, or find a hotel. Despite being tired, Trent could not sit still. He decided to check out the perimeter of the interior of the church. Mom kept her eyes on the door and I kept my eyes on Trent. He cautiously moved along the wall and peered into the alcove. He must have seen or heard something because he was in super stealth mode. His back pressed against the walls and he crouched down as he slowly moved into the alcove. Whatever it was must have realized it was being stalked. It jetted out of there so fast that all I was able to make out was the rippling fabric bolting toward the door.

"Hey! Come back here!" Trent followed, "I'm not going to hurt you, please wait!"

We dropped our lunches and ran down the aisle to follow my brother. The hallway beyond the interior of the church was lit rather dimly. At the far end of the hall a girl was trying desperately to pull open a locked door.

"Stay away from me!" She cried out in frustration.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just a kid. I know things seem scary right now, with everyone asleep and all..." He knelt down on the ground in a cautiously nonthreatening way.

I tried to join my brother, but my mother placed her hand on my shoulder to hold me back. I glanced behind me and my mother just shook her head. Mom must have sensed that the girl was feeling cornered enough, and if we joined my brother it would make her feel worse.

"What do you want from me?" She sobbed as she pulled on her ragged mop of red hair. Tears of frustration left dirty smudges down her sunken in cheeks. She looked as if she hadn't bathed or changed her cloths in over a week. Her knees gave out and she knelt on the floor rocking herself back and forth. "I don't want to go back, I'll never go back, and you'll have to kill me first!" She started to breath heavily and let out another sob.

Trent hesitated, and then carefully said, "Look whatever has happened to you in the past, you don't need to worry about it right now. See, I don't know if you have been outside or not today, but the city is in danger. I don't know how or why, but everyone is asleep." He turned his apple green gaze back over his shoulder at us. "This is my mom and sister. We weren't affected, and neither were you. Let's work together to figure this out."

She rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. Her chest dramatically lifted and fell several times as she tried to fight her fears and face us. Her head tilted slightly as if she were still listening to someone whispering in her ear.

"Why don't we go back into the church? We left our lunches out there, there's some extra if you want it." Trent held out his hand toward her as he stood up.

The girl hesitated as she calmed herself down and thought about her options. Reluctantly she whipped her hand on her jeans and then took my brother's hand. "Thank you," She whispered as she cast her eyes downwards. I couldn't see her expression since her hair was now coving her entire face leaving only a few strands clipped behind her head.

I couldn't imagine why she looked the way she did. Where was her family? Why was she so thin and dirty? Had someone hurt her? A million questions ran through my mind as I postulated the answers made me angry. I did my best not to show it for her sake. The last thing she needed was for me to ask her something stupid and get her upset again.

After we lead her back to the pews where we were first sitting, my brother offered her his sandwich. It was the nicest thing I have ever seen him do. My mom and I were so used to trying to protect him and help him out that maybe he was starting to grow up?

We introduced ourselves to the girl, and waited for her to say something back. Her mouth was kind of filled with food, so we waited patiently until she finished licking her fingers. She thanked us and told us that her name is Zillah. That's it, no last name, just Zillah. She had a slight twang to her voice so I could tell that she wasn't a local, but beyond that she kept her personal information to herself.

Mom decided that we needed to get to the closest hotel, wash up and rest up. I couldn't argue, my brother smelled like oily suntan lotion that had been left out in the sun too long. And Zillah... well, let's just say she smelt of decaying flowers. You know the kind that you get your mom for Mother's day and she doesn't have the heart to throw out until the flowers are all dead and molding.

Along the way we stopped in a Walgreens to pick up some necessitates, and then we raided a clothing store. Zillah seemed to lighten up. She told us to pick out dark colors and to find a dark colored hat. When I asked her why she pointed to her hair.

"Red hair makes you a target when you are trying to blend in. So does being a blond." She pointed towards my mother's sun kissed blond hair. "You on the other hand are okay, for the most part." She shrugged, "Your blond streaks might give you a way." She shook her head and said to herself, "mom would never have let me do that to my hair..."

"Oh these are natural." I said as I ran my fingers through my chocolate brown locks. "Whenever I start at a new school, the kids always make fun of my blond streaks by saying that I'm going gray or something stupid like that."

Zillah frowned; I guess she didn't realize she had made her comment out loud. "There are worse things in life..." She shrugged again, "Kids used to make fun of my hair too... They would call me a ginger, but I normally pointed out that I don't have freckles and I can stay in the sun as long as I want without ever getting sun burn." She smirked, "That normally shut them up."

After we picked out an outfit to change into we went over toward the register to pay for our cloths. Mom let me swipe her credit card since she was low on cash.

We found a hotel along one of the main roads. It didn't have five star accommodations, but it was good enough for what we needed. Mom went behind the check in counter and she hacked into the system's computer. She found two adjoining rooms a couple of floors up and borrowed the keys to let ourselves in.

After showering and eating again we were able to get a couple of hours of sleep before all the noise jarred us awake. Mom and Trent were in the connecting room next to Zillah's and mine, but the doors were open and we could see that they had woken up as well.

I cautiously pulled the curtains back from the window. The setting sun blazed in the distance casting off red and purple streaks across the sky. Shadows stretched across the city, as darkness began its decent. I watched as the street lights that were programed by timers began to blink on. Whatever was moving into the city must have been huge. The windowpane vibrated violently from what felt and sounded like a thousand stomping feet.

"Grab your gear; we got to get out of here before we're over run!" My mother shouted. Apparently she didn't want to stick around to see what was making all of that noise.

None of us argued, we knew something big was coming and we did not want to find out what it was.

"We need weapons!" Zillah looked half crazed as if her senses were going into overdrive.

"Whoa, I got an idea!" Trent got excited, "let's borrow the cops' guns. No one will dare harm us with those!"

"I don't think those types will do anything to what we're going to be faced with." Zillah made her way out the door and started toward the stairs.

"She's right." Mom hastened behind us. "We need to get back to the Met!"


	4. Zillah Tangos with a Snake

**Chapter Four: Zillah Tangos with a Snake**

We ran several blocks back to the Met. I don't know if it was anxiety building up in my stomach, or perhaps it was anticipation, but it almost felt like someone was watching us from a distance.

I've had that feeling before, but normally it was while I was taking a test or at a swim meet. Somehow this was different. It was similar to what I felt the night my grandparents died. Don't dwell, I told myself. Dwelling on things I can't change will just make things worse. I'll lose focus and get someone will get hurt. Concentrate! My senses opened up. I took in everything that was in my direct and peripheral vision.

The noise got louder as we got closer to Central Park. I could only imagine that we were running into a battle. I began to wonder why we hadn't thought of getting weapons earlier.

As we rounded the corner and jogged up to the Met, a blinding white light filled the sky behind the museum. I shielded my eyes and continued to move in the direction I was heading. The winds started to pick up and storm clouds gathered in the same direction. Trent and I were able to climb the steps of the building without a problem, but mom and Zillah were being forced backwards.

Luckily, the winds died down, and mom and Zillah were able to join us. Zillah gave us a strange look as if she were trying to decide if we were good freaks or bad freaks.

As I entered the building I allowed my vision to adjust to the change in light. I scanned the lobby to make sure it was as we left it.

About a dozen sleeping tourist scattered across the floor.

Check.

Security keys on the central desk.

Check.

A pile of coats on the ground.

Check.

A huge serpent with rows of razor sharp teeth on the balcony.

Che... Ah!

"Scatter!" Zillah cried out. She pulled off her hair clip and unfastened it. The barrette turned into a silver long sword.

The serpent turned its gaze on Zillah and hissed. It lunged off the balcony and straight at her. Zillah jumped up just in time and landed on the monster's back. She plunged her sword downwards. The monster swayed its head back and forth trying to throw her off but in the process she held onto the blade causing it to rip a huge hole in the back of the monster's neck.

Zillah flew off the monster and slid across the floor colliding into the desk that lead into the Greek and Roman section. Her sword clang to the floor as the monster disintegrated into a yellow sulfur powder.

"Zillah!" My heart leaped into my throat. I sprinted over to her.

She turned over, squeezing her eyes closed, and muttered, "I'm okay, I just need a second."

Trent picked up her sword and brought it over to her. "How did you do that?" He handed it to her after I had taken her arm to help her stand.

I looked over at my mother. She was chewing on her lip. Her eyes were clouded over as if she were reevaluating a battle strategy.

"I found that with my mom's personal stuff from the hospital... she... she planned on giving it to me when I was older... but she died before that could happen." She took the sword and folded it together. It turned into a lily shaped tarnished silver barrette.

"I'm sorry about your mom..." I whispered, wishing I knew what else to say.

"Forget it, we have bigger problems."

Trent turned back toward the door; the sounds of battle were getting closer. "I don't think we have much time before they are right on top of us."

"Right!" Zillah tilted her head as if someone was talking into her ear again. She turned and jogged into the Greek and Roman wing. It must have been the closest section of the museum to house weapons.

"Shouldn't we find some sabers? I remember seeing some sweet fencing swords on our tour." I suggested as I followed her.

"All we need is right in here." Zillah turned toward my mother and studied her carefully. It was like she felt like she was holding back information. Or perhaps she blamed her for having us come back here when obviously we were closer to the fighting then we were before.

Toward the Egyptian wing, a loud crash erupted. It sounded like a whole lot of rocks collapsing in on itself.

"That can't be good!" My brows knitted together.

Trent ran over to one of the cases, "We'll never get inside these things, and I don't think the security guards' keys will work to open them..."

"Miss Glew, what should we do?" Zillah asked with a wildness in her eyes that was similar to a caged animal.

Mom didn't have time to respond. Trent pulled a spear off of one of the displays and hurled it at a case that was full of daggers and swords; it caused the glass to shatter into a million pieces. The point of the spear sank into the matting that held up the swords. The lights faded all around us and turned red. I quickly covered my ears as the blazing sound of sirens rung bouncing off the marble statues and columns.

Mom pulled out her Benjamin Franklin glasses from her pocket and placed them on her face. I've never seen her use them for anything other than reading before. She carefully examined the swords and daggers. "Trent take this one." She shouted over the siren as she held it away from her. My brother jogged over and took it from her hand.

"Thanks." He did a practice lunge and sliced the sword through the air. "This will work."

"Meredith, take this one." Mom handed me a short sword with a leather handle. It appeared to be covered in blood in the red light.

"Zillah, do you want another weapon?"

"I'll take a couple of daggers and stick them into my belt and pack. You never know when they might come in handy."

Mom nodded and followed suit. She picked out a long sword and several daggers. We each tucked one in our belt, and put one in our pockets and packs.

"Let's get out of here." Mom shouted over the siren. We jogged out of Greek and Roman wing and into the lobby. If this were an ordinary day, this place would have been in lock down and surrounded by cops.

Outside, the commotion fell silent.

"REEEET!" Echoed off the buildings.

In the sky above us a pig the size of an armored car flew irregular pattern past us. It had bubble gum pink wings with a Greek armored clad soldier hanging from a rope on one of them.

A beautiful black Pegasus trailed behind it. It circled around the soldier as if it were trying to move into position to catch him.

"Whoa... This is just like the dream I had last week." Trent stood in awe staring at the scene.

Mom flinched hearing Trent's comment, shook her head and said, "We need to get out of the city." The army in the park sounded as if it had passed us and was heading south towards downtown. "We're going to cut across the park and head toward the Lincoln Tunnel. Keep your eyes open, stick to the shadows."

It was easier said than done. We couldn't go more than twenty feet before we were spotted by a couple of snake women. My palms felt sweaty as the thought of fighting that thing gripped my stomach. I wanted to pretend to ask for directions and hope that they forgot that just about everyone in the city was asleep.

My impulsive brother shouted, "en garde!" He charged the first snake woman taking her by surprise. The rest of us followed suit. Trent and I used our fencing moves to take out one and mom and Zillah used their skills against the other. They were yellow sulfur dust in minutes.

That wasn't the end of it. We fought our way across Central Park. When we thought we were done with one type of monster, another would show up. Luckily, they seemed like stragglers. They were the weaklings, the old, and the very young of their kind. If we had encountered a large group of monsters at their prime, we would have been toast.

We should have cut across the park by going straight through the woods, but we didn't want to get lost. So, we took the 79th Street Transverse up toward Belvedere Castle.

Apparently we had gotten in the way of a giant stalking its prey. It hurled a boulder the size of a bowling ball at my brother's head. Zillah threw herself on top of him as the boulder whizzed past her flaming red hair.

He must have had a pile of boulder hidden behind the tree he was using as a shield. One after another they whizzed past our heads. We were just a little bit faster than he was, but at the same time there was no way of getting away from him.


	5. The Wonder Twins

**Chapter Five: The Wonder Twins**

"DUCK!"

My instincts kicked in and I hit the ground, so did everyone else. A garbage can flew over my head and into giant's stunned face. I looked up. A tall well-built and really hot guy was standing several feet behind me. He had raven black hair, electric blue eyes and a wide confident smile with pearly white teeth. He placed his hands on his hips. He had a huge silver belt buckle, like the ones you would expect to see on a cowboy. All was missing was the hat.

"Now that's what I call taking out the trash." He grinned, and then pushed himself into a sprint.

It was like watching a car crash. I just couldn't look away.

The cowboy put the giant into a sleeper hold. They wrestled until he broke off one of the giant's tattooed arms. It groaned displaying a mouth razor sharp yellow choppers. Within seconds the rest of his body burned into a green flame.

"Show off." A petite towheaded girl in khaki shorts and a tank top moved up the path from the castle. She smirked, "Please forgive my brother's dramatics. We saw the army of monsters heading in this direction and thought that we could make a break for the Lincoln Tunnel before things got ugly." At closer inspection the girl had several cuts and bruises on her arms and legs. She looked like she had been in just as many fights as us.

"Instead we found ourselves in the middle of a monster verses Greek Super Soldiers, Clash of the Titans type of deal." The cowboy said as he dusted the grass and gravel from his button down shirt and jean shorts. "Our position is compromised, Lyra. We need to keep moving."

"We're heading for the Lincoln Tunnel too!" My brother exclaimed. He turned toward my mother, "Let's join forces with these two, please Mom!"

Lyra and her brother gave my mother surprised looks. She had been so quite that perhaps they didn't notice her. Or maybe because she normally looked like she had just walked off the set of_ Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition _that they didn't believe that she had a ten and twelve year old. Whatever the case was mother nodded. "Six is better than four." She took a bronze knife out of her purse and handed it to the girl. "I'm guessing you two are both good at throwing?"

"Thanks Ma...Miss!" The girl tossed her white blond hair over her shoulder and examined the blade. "Yes we are, and this will defiantly do."

I gave her my extra knife as well. I'm umm… not good at throwing. Trent and Zillah gave the cowboy their extra knives they had in their packs. Perhaps he could throw them at the monsters and disintegrated them before they got close to us. That would be pretty sweet.

The cowboy looked Zillah over from head to toe. "My name's Skylar. Nice move back there when you saved the boy."

Zillah's face turned the same color as her hair. "T..thanks." From what I could tell he was genuinely impressed with her.

We finished introducing ourselves and decided to move on. We had lingered in one spot for too long and were quickly noticed by a pack of the scariest dogs I had ever seen.

Zillah stepped in front of us and gave the dogs a nasty look. "STAY!" She held up her hand. Maybe she was full of confidence since Skylar just gave her that compliment, but for whatever the reason they listened.

Imagine a pack of dogs sitting and standing in various positions. Some are tilting their heads others are chasing their tails or licking themselves. Now, imagine them the size of tanks. That would sum up what this pack of blood red eyed dogs. It was like the meanness had left them. One whimpered as it tried to come forward to lick Zillah's hand.

"I said, stay." She spoke firmly but with more affection in her voice.

The dog laid down and placed his head on the path.

Zillah called each of the dogs by name and told them to go home. They each stopped what they were doing and melted into the shadows. The last dog, Grunt, quickly licked Zillah before turning and disappearing into the shadows.

"I don't know how I did that or how I knew their names." Zillah's knees gave out as she whipped the saliva onto her shorts. With a deep breath she sat back on her heals and addressed us. "I just need a minute to catch my breath." Her pale face looked drained of energy.

Behind us the sound of a thousand panes of glass shattering and a roar came from the direction of the Met.

"I don't think we have a minute." Skylar bent down and scooped Zillah up in his arms. "Let's move." He started to jog westward up the path. He moved so gracefully it was like watching an Olympic runner caring a bag of feathers.

The rest of us couldn't argue, so we followed him down the path. "Meredith, flank his right, Trent his left..."

My mom took the rear position. She practically ran backwards as she kept an eye on the path behind us.

"I got point!" Lyra sprinted past her brother and gave him a wink. Zillah had fallen asleep in his arms.

In the distance we could hear the clanging of swords and the roars of monsters. However, in the immediate vicinity, there was a deafening silence. It was summer, so I would expect to hear either the buzzing of insects, or the hum of grass hoppers. Well... that is unless they don't have that in Central Park, but I couldn't be certain.

Our footsteps fell heavy as we jogged up the path.

Ten feet, no monsters, that was good.

Twenty feet, still no monsters, that was awesome.

Up ahead I saw a crossroads of sorts. This is where 79th Street Transverse and West Drive meet. I believed we were going to go left on West Drive and head out of the park by following that path.

For the first time I noticed all the damaged vegetation. Bushes were ripped out of the ground, trees were split in two, and there were limbs all over the place. I could swear a tornado must have touched down, that's how bad things looked. In the distance I could see an eerie green fire burning along one of the jogging paths. I wondered what could have possibly caused fire to burn green.

Lyra double timed her steps to scout ahead. We would be vulnerable from every direction for several minutes since we would be clearly visible to anything lurking on a path or in the darkness. Several street lamps had been destroyed, but there were still enough to give us a pretty decent amount of light.

Suddenly, Lyra collided with an invisible wall. The impact sight shimmered an iridescent neon blue for several seconds before disappearing again. Rubbing the spot on her forehead where she hit the wall, Lyra turned towards us. "Something's blocking the way."

"Let's head back down the path, we'll find a way around it." My mother quickly ordered. She took several steps back toward the opposite direction and also ran into an invisible wall. "Spread out as far as you can! I think we're being boxed in!"

I turned towards the right. I held my sword in one hand and extended the other one in front of me. After several steps, I also made contact with the invisible wall.

"We're trapped!" Trent cried out.


	6. The Crossroads

**Chapter Six: The Crossroads**

Skylar placed Zillah down on the ground. She opened her eyes and blushed from the embarrassment of having fallen asleep. "Sorry guys," she yawned and then went wide eyed when she realized we were in danger.

"There's only one way I know how to get past a wall." Skylar balled up his fist, raised his arm and was set to punch his way through Lyra's wall. Before striking the blow, a young girl about eight years old with strawberry blond hair and bright blue eyes shimmered into existence.

That's right; she appeared out of nowhere. Her hair was a ripple of flames as she floated towards us. Her hoodie was covered in torches that changed colors with her movement.

"Hi there!" She gave us a bright smile. "Welcome to the crossroads."

She shimmed a neon blue and turned into a high school age teenager. This time her hair was a wispy jet black. Her legs were covered in green and black snake skin leather leggings and on top she had on a black snake skin corset. "I see we have six, undetermined heroes in our midst, three from the north and three from the south. Interesting…" She walked through the invisible wall. "Morpheus told me that there were several of you in the city. But, six," she pursed her bright red lips, "that is a real treat." Her hand lightly brushed Skylar's cheek and gave him a seductive look.

I was too stunned to speak. I thought back to one of the night classes my mother dragged me to last year. There weren't any day cares open past six where we live, and no babysitter in their right minds would watch us. So, mom brought us with her to her night classes. Generally we did our homework in the back, listened to our I Pods, or if we found the subject interesting, listened to the lecture. However, mom ordered us to listen to the lectures for Greek and Roman Myth, no excuses allowed. Which was fine by me, I was learning about that in school already, but in a more PG type of way.

I recalled learning about Morpheus. He was the god of dreams.

Hey, wait a minute, the creepy guy from yesterday told me '_sweet dreams_.'

"He's the man I met yesterday, the one with the blurry face?" I asked.

The teenage girl shimmered back into the eight year old's body. "That's right!" She turned toward me and smiled. For the first time I got a good look at her eyes.

Thousands of years of travelers in all different types of garments were coming and going. Road ways shifted and changed from dirt paths to cobble stone and later asphalt. Cities and towns grew and shrunk with the changing of technology, food shortages, and hostile take overs.

"Whoa... You... your... the goddess of the crossroads and magic, Hecate."

"Right again!" She clasped her hands together. Soft singing floated from her lips as she started to skip around us.

A two-faced man appeared floating outside our box. "They must choose."

Hecate stopped skipping and tilted her head looking up at him. "I know that, silly Janus." She grinned as if she were having fun with us, "aren't you needed elsewhere?"

"They must decide." One face spoke. The other comment, "a choice needs to be made."

"Choice? What choice?" My mother spoke up. I don't know if she was scared, or worried, or whatever, but mom was not acting like herself. Normally she was confident, wise, and decisive. Now, she seemed uncertain, and it looked like she were second guessing herself.

Hecate spun around and looked at my mother, "which path to take." She shimmered once again and turned into an old crone. Kind of like the one from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but instead of being draped in a black cape and cowl, she was wearing a long sleeved dress with a multi colored key pattern. Her short white and grey hair was unkempt and blotchy around her withered face. "Take an oath of allegiance to the titans or to the Olympian gods."

"Is that what all of this is about? They're fighting again? I thought the titans were locked up in various places around the world." I blurted out.

She shimmered back into her eight year old self. "They were, now they're not!" Started to skip again as she sang in a language that sounded older than ancient Greek.

"There isn't enough information for them to make a logical decision." My mother stated. "They need to know more."

She stopped in front of my mother and shimmered into her teenage self. "You've made your decision?"

"I have." She proudly raised her chin. "I stand with…"

Hecate raised her hand and flicked her fingers. My mother shimmered blue. "Then you're done talking."

Mom stood there frozen as a statue. I prayed what Hecate did to her was only temporary.

"Hey! What did you do to my mom?" Trent shouted.

Hecate shimmered into her eight year old self. "She'll be okay. I've just taken her out of the discussion."

The twins exchanged looks. Skylar crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Miss Glew was right, my uh...goddess." He frowned for a split second. "We need more information. This choice could affect the rest of our lives."

"Maybe, maybe not." She skipped around once more.

I looked over at Trent. His free fist was clenched, and his eyes had narrowed. But when he spoke he sounded rather calm. "Whose side are you on, my goddess?"

She skipped over toward him once again. Perhaps she sensed that he was on the verge of boiling over. "It doesn't matter. My side is winning, and that's all that counts." She nodded happily and then shimmered into a teenager once again. Her hand came up and cupped my brother's cheek. Their eyes locked for several seconds, "he's chosen his path!" She flicked her hand at him and he froze in place. "Two down, four to go."

"Hey! Wait a second, what did he decide to do?" Zillah protested. She looked a little better. Skylar offered her his hand and then pulled her up to stand besides him.

"Ah, if it isn't the florist's daughter. A good friend of mine was awfully upset when she learned of your birth." Hecate swayed her hips as she walked back over to Zillah and Skylar. "Tell me child, all of those lonely nights on the run, sleeping in the woods or in mausoleums. I recall you washed in creeks and dug out half eaten dinners from garbage cans behind restaurants. How do you think you survived for three years? By pure luck?" She shook her head and pursed her red lips. "No, I helped you indirectly; as I have helped all run away half-bloods from all mythologies. But does anyone ever think to say 'thank you'? Or offer me a portion of their meals when they reach Camp Half – Blood or Jupiter or Asgard? No, they don't, they worship their careless godly parent who either doesn't remember siring them or just enjoys watching them struggle to survive. Not even my own children care to ever think that I could be their mother!"

Janus floated across the invisible box to the opposite side. My guess is that he wanted to get into Hecate's line of vision. One head asked, "do you worship the gods or the titans?" The other head responded, "the time to decide is now."

Zillah looked as if she were on the verge of tears. Her cheeks were as red as her hair. Later she told me that she was really embarrassed that all came out in front of Skylar. She didn't want him to think she was trash because she had to eat from the trash.

Grinding her teeth Zillah responded, "my mother told me that if the ancient laws prevent the gods from directly interfering with their children's lives. It would just be wrong to show anyone that much favor..." A blue light washed over her.

"Her mind is made up." She turned toward Lyra, "So quiet for one who has such a loud voice."

Before Hecate could make a full circle around her, Lyra blurted out. "Olympians. I choose the Olympians."

"As do I." Skylar added as he watched his twin sister freeze. Seconds later the same blue light engulfed him.

"What a shame." Hecate walked past Skylar and smacked him on his rear. An evil smile crossed her lips and she turned back towards him. For several seconds she whispered in his ear and then shimmered back into her child form. "Five down, one to go!" She skipped around me.

A shiver went down my spine. I knew what Lyra and Skylar had decided, but what about everyone else? Had a god really abandoned my mother? She would sometimes state that her 'real mother' must have done this or that, but she never mentioned who she thought she could be.

Think logically, I told myself, what did that professor say about the titans and the gods? My thoughts drifted back to her lectures. She had my mother's class write a five to six page persuasive paper asking a similar question. My mom had me proof read her work with and without the Benjamin Franklin glasses on. She felt it was good practice and that I should learn that writing a five paragraph essay for English wasn't as terrible as I normally made it out to be.

"I choose the Olympians." I held my breath expecting to have a spell cast on me too, but instead Hecate shimmered into an old crone.

"Very well." She rasped.

"They have all chosen the same response." One of Janus's heads sadly commented. "They will all die cruel and horrific deaths." The other cried. He began spinning like a top until he went so fast he popped out of existence.

"Foolish heroes." Hecate shook her head, "you've chosen the losing side. Pity, you would have been very useful and poor Morpheus will be utterly disappointed." With a shrug the neon blue light circled around her and she shimmered out of sight.


	7. Escaping Central Park

**Chapter Seven: Escaping Central Park**

My heart swelled with relief as Hecate's disappearance broke the spell on my family and new friends.

"I suggest we get moving. I don't like the implications of their predictions," my mom shuttered.

"Right! I'll scout ahead!" Lyra broke out into a sprint down West Drive.

I gripped my sword's rubber handle as we jogged. Lyra's frosty blond ponytail swished back and forth ahead of us. Any other day she would have appeared to be a regular NYC jogger, but today was different.

Janus's prediction made a chill crawl up my spine. What if he was right? I couldn't stand it if something happened to my mom and brother. They were my world.

I began to wonder how long was it going to take to get out of the city and how long were we going to be able to keep this pace up. I couldn't count how many claw marks, cuts, and bruises I had on me even if I tried. My entire body was numb with pain. I guess that's why my mind kept drifting.

My senses kicked in as Skylar raised his arm and whipped a knife into the shadows to the left of Lyra. She stopped and turned towards us. "Ewe, super big snake." She picked up the knife after the monster turned to sulfur dust.

"Hey, at least Zillah won't have to tango with that one!" Trent grinned as he received a shut up smack from Zillah. "What?" He rubbed his arm as if she caused him a great deal of pain.

"Trent stay focused." My mom ordered from behind us. "Let's get off on Central Park West as soon as possible. This way we can keep the park to our left and hide in the trees if we need to."

"Sounds like a plan." Skylar agreed. "Staying on this path might make the trek longer than it needs to be anyway."

"After that we'll stay on 8th Avenue and head up 38th Street to get to the Lincoln tunnel."

"Too bad we can't just 'borrow' someone's car or a city bus and drive ourselves out of here." Trent suggested.

"That would be great," I said, "But whatever magic is at work here, it turned off all of the car engines when it put their drivers to sleep. We can't just hop on a bus and expect it to work. Besides, that's way too risky, it would be like sending up a flare, 'hi monsters come and eat us.'" I sighed as my sword felt like it was getting heavier and heavier. I realized my adrenaline rush must be coming to an end. From what I could tell by the looking around, everyone was feeling the same way, but no one was willing to admit it.

"Not to mention all the other cars and busses in the way." Lyra added in after making her way back over to us. She handed the dagger back to brother, and then she grabbed his wrist to check the time. "It's about midnight."

Zillah got that look in her eye again. She tilted her head and frowned. "It doesn't seem like there are too many stragglers around anymore. Let's hope..."

Fireworks went off in my brain. My knees buckled and my sword clang to the ground. Falling forward I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming pain in my shoulder.

"Meredith!" My mother's voice sounded muffled in my ears.

"Surrender or the next one will be through the heart." A voice from the woods called out. If I could think a little straighter I would have guessed it was a kid trying to sound like a man.

My family and friends formed a tight circle around me.

"Show yourself, coward!" Lyra's voice boomed. I lifted my eyes towards her and could swear her hair was turning grey. Not like when you're older and the color starts to fade, but more like when the clouds start change before a storm.

"Oh, you shouldn't have done that." A snotty female's voice commented from the opposite direction.

"Shut up Lindsey!" Another girl whispered way too loudly.

"No Brielle, you shut up." Lindsey spat back.

"Both of you shut up!" The first kid yelled in his normal voice.

"Oh, by the way, nice shot Paul." Lindsey sarcastically commented loud enough for him to hear. Then to Brielle in a harsh loud whisper, "No wonder Apollo never claimed him."

"Go paint your nails!" He growled and said something along the lines that she was too ugly for Aphrodite to ever want her as one of her brats.

White spots danced across my eyes. I looked down at my arm and saw that it glistened with my own blood.

"Paul, just kill them already and be done with it." Brielle begged.

"No, I got a better idea."

"But we're under orders..." Brielle whined.

"Slaves. There are six, assuming the brunette survives. We'll have two each. You can't beat that."

Lindsey reminded him, "We'll be able to have a whole city of slaves once Kronos takes over. Just kill them, so that we could report this in."

"Yeah, but these are half-bloods..." Paul continued to list why it would better to have a demi-god as a slave as opposed to a mortal.

I was sitting back on my heals trying to maintain some level of focus when Lyra looked back at me. Maybe it was the loss of blood, but her electric blue eyes appeared to be sparking out of control. Her hair was no longer grey, it had turned jet black.

I shifted my eyes as far around the circle as I could possible look without moving my shoulder. Each person seemed to have grown a new aura of energy.

Suddenly the circle broke open, and my family and friends rushed toward into the trees. Lindsey, Brielle and Paul were so distracted by their own bickering that they were caught completely off guard.

Paul released one arrow before Skylar dove on top of him. The arrow sailed in my direction. I tried to move out of its way, but was too slow. It punctured my calve muscle. I screamed out of pain before the world shifted into blackness.

"Work, damn it, work!" My mother's voice sounded terrified in my ears.

"Miss Glew, look!" Zillah sounded relieved.

The pain in my shoulder and calve faded. A wave of tingling sensations spread through my limbs. I opened my eyes to see my mother's worried expression melt away. "Oh, my Mermaid! You had me so worried!" She embraced me and started to kiss the top of my head.

"I'm okay, mom, really." My voice sounded weak and distant as I tried to reassure her. For the first time I realized I was submerged in water. Zillah, Trent, and my mom were waist deep in the water as well.

Sponge ran out of the polluted lake, "She's okay!" He nearly shouted loud enough for any monster near us to hear.

"Nice to have you back in the land of the living." Zillah smiled, and then walked off as well.

"Sweetie, can you stand?"

Put my feet down into the mud. "I think so." I shifted my weight and stood. My knees did not buckle. Instead, I felt like a million bucks. I couldn't remember the last time I felt this refreshed.

"Wonderful!" My mom gave me another hug, and then started pulling me toward the shore.

"What happened to the other kids?"

"Oh, they're tied up to a tree."

"Really?" I wondered if they were going to get in trouble.

"Yeah. Now you know why I always tell you to stay focused." She said as if it were my fault that I got shot. Well... I guess it was. Maybe if I had been more focused I could have seen Paul in the trees or noticed Lindsey and Breille in their hiding places.

I stepped out of the lake and stopped as my head grew fuzzy once more. I staggered unevenly for several feet. I could only imagine that I looked drunk.

"Do you need me to carry her?" Skylar walked toward us. His brows were knitted together as if he were actually worried about me.

"She'll be fine." My mom squeezed my hand for a split second before letting go.

I heard doubt in Skylar's voice as he said, "if you insist." His button down shirt was covered in my blood and his jeans were partially soaked. I thanked him for caring me to the water and promised him that I would make it up to him someday.

My brother brought me my sword and he asked, "Can you hold this?"

I gripped the handle. "Yeah, we better get moving."

"I'm glad you're okay." Lyra appeared out of the trees. Her hair was back to normal, and her expression looked fairly cheery. "I was so mad, I thought... I thought..." She shook her head, "Never mind." She turned and took the point position in our line once again.

The rest of our trip out of the park went rather smoothly. We hardly ran into any monsters, or crazy kids. It was just after one when we reached Columbus Circle the ground began to shake.

"Earthquake?" Lyra suggested.

"Worse," Zillah's eyes filled with fear. "Several large blue giants are heading our way."


	8. Hiding Out in Style

**Chapter Eight: Hiding Out in Style**

"Over there!" Trent looked panicked he pointed in the direction we were heading.

My mom grabbed my free hand. "The hotel!" We darted back in the opposite direction.

The Trump International Hotel loamed ahead of us.

To my relief, the rest of our party ran behind us. The stomping in the distance sounded like it was following us, but I couldn't be sure. I looked over my shoulder and saw tiny blue blotches several blocks away.

We entered the lobby and dashed toward the elevators.

"Let's pray this works." My mother commented as she hit the button for the 59th floor.

The tower was so huge, that it would take a really long time for any monsters to find us. They would have to search floor by floor and I doubted that they had time for that. I also doubted those giants could fit into an elevator. They were definitely over the 2000 pound weight limit.

Once we exited the elevators Skylar quickly looped around the hallway to determine the largest room. He studied the door and then shoved his side into it.

"After you." He moved the door from its hinges and allowed for us to enter.

I took a good look around. Only one sleeping person was in there, and he was resting in one of the chairs. There was a coffee stain on the carpet where his cup fell from his hand when the city was put to sleep. Several suit cases were piled in each of the two bed rooms. But from what we could tell the family must have just gotten there. Who knows maybe they were still in the park or in the lobby? We will never know.

Trent raided the fridge with Skylar's help. He took out his dinner and split it with Zillah. I gave half of mine to Lyra, and mom shared hers with Skylar.

Mom sipped her black coffee while we drank cans of coke. "I want each of you to get some rest. We'll head out again around four."

"Let's wash up and get some fresh cloths while we're at it." Skylar suggested.

Each of us agreed.

Skylar broke into each of the rooms on our floor so that we could all shower and change without wasting any time. Unfortunately for the people who were staying on that floor, we raided their suit cases until we found cloths that fit us.

It wasn't until two in the morning when I finally fell asleep. The past couple of nights my dreams had been awfully weird. I dreamt about ancient heroes, and events surrounding a kid called Percy, his girlfriend Annabeth, and their friend Grover. The dreams only left me confused. This time was no different since it was a forgotten memory.

It was a bright, hot summer day, with very little humidity in the air.

It was our annual trip to Wildwood. Mom had taken three days off from work at the bridal boutique she does alterations at. We got there the day before and spent our evening going to the board walk. So, day two was the day we got to relax.

Our multi colored owl umbrella and towels were set up far from the surf. Mom wanted to stay out all day and didn't want to have to move because of the tides.

We were playing in the sand, and mom was keeping an eye on us from her towel as she soaked up the sun. I looked over my sand castle, and dug a crater for a lake. I looked over my shoulder, "Mom, can I go get some water?" I pointed toward the ocean. "I won't get lost, promise, we're right in front of that hotel, and the garbage cans are right there." I pointed to them to prove I knew how to find our towels. "And our umbrella is the only one on the beach with owls."

She tied her bikini top and sat up. I guessed she was looking at my brother through her sunglasses and was deciding if she should break his concentration. "Okay, Mermaid, to the water and back."

I squealed with joy. Being seven and having my mom show that she trusted me enough to do something for myself was huge. I picked up my bucket and ran past about a dozen other families that had set themselves up in front of us. Some had umbrellas; others had chairs, towels and a combination of all three, and I even past one guy who was just soaking up the sun in a single chair right at the surf.

I giggled as the waves hit my legs. The water felt great, and the smell was invigorating. I paused and took a deep breath.

"Not too cold, little one?"

My startle reflex kicked into full gear and I jumped at the sound of the man's voice. I turned sheepishly to look at him and relaxed. "Nope, it's perfect. The water is perfect, the breeze is perfect, the sand is perfect, even the sky is perfect." I giggled and spun around. "A perfect day!" I gave him a huge and partially toothless smile. "Is it too cold for you, sir?"

"It's just the way I like it." He commented with a warm smile and then turned his gaze back on the sea.

I took a good look at him. He had dark hair, with a moustache and a beard. He was wearing sunglasses and a dolphin printed shirt. There was a drink in one hand and a newspaper in the other. Propped up against his chair was a huge bronze fork. "Whoa, what's the huge fork for? Did you borrow that from a giant or something?" I moved a couple of steps closer to get a better look at it. "How do you make it glow like that?"

He tilted his head as if inspecting me with new interest. "It's called a trident. And no, I didn't borrow it from a giant. It's mine." He placed down his paper and took his sunglasses off. "Tell me, little one, what do you see when you look into my eyes."

I took my eyes off of the trident and lifted them to his face. There was no meanness there, no anger or anything that would make me feel worried. He had a warm smile, with a good set of teeth, and his eyes... whoa. I saw the open sea, wooden ships sailing along the waves, dolphins diving down below the surface. A palace emerged, one that would make Ariel's look like a cheap fish tank decoration. There were horses with fish tails and all different types of sea creatures. I could have stood there staring at his eyes for hours, but I was suddenly pulled away.

"Meredith! What were you thinking?" My mother scolded me and then quickly embraced me before holding me at arm's length to check to make sure I was still in one piece.

I was back on Wildwood beach. My mother had seen me talking to this stranger and ran over with my brother under her arm to get me.

Trent stood next to her with his arm wrapped around her leg. He was staring at the man's trident. "Pretty fork, Mama!"

Apparently she hadn't heard him. She turned toward the man in the beach chair and softened her voice. "I apologize for my daughter's inappropriate behavior." She took my hand into hers and looked into my eyes, "She should know better than to talk to strangers."

"The fault's all mine, Sophie." He said in a matter of fact manner.

Mother trembled. I never told him her name! How in the world did he know that? Startled, she took grey eyes off of mine and turned toward the man. The pulse in her hand went wild as their eyes locked.

After a few seconds she fell to her knees and bowed her head. "I...I'm sorry, my lord. Please forgive my impudence." She rushed her comments without taking a breath, "The children are innocent... I was such an emotional wreck back then... I know you don't want excuses. They are all I have left, I paid dearly for them already and I will suffer whatever punishment you deem necessary. I beg you, please, don't harm them." She held Trent close to her with one arm and pressed me against her body with the other arm.

I had no idea as to what was going on. Perhaps they knew each other or something like that? All I knew at that moment was that my mother was upset and that she was doing her best to stop her shaking. She looked really guilty too, like she did when she promised to take us to get ice-cream, but realized she didn't have enough money on her. I held onto her and whispered, "I'm sorry mama, please be happy again."

Trent followed suit, his little arms hugged her tightly. "Me too, I'm sorry too." He turned his face toward the man and gave him one of his pleading, 'can I have a cookie, too' looks.

I peered back at the man. He was rubbing his chin as if deciding what to do about us.

"I suppose, your mother is partially to blame for this. Sophie, did you ever spend any time at Camp Half-Blood?"

"No, sir, I did not."

"And the first time was an accident, but the second time was not..." He looked at me and then Trent his facial expression was unreadable.

"There was no one in my life that was like me when I was growing up. I couldn't imagine having that happen to my little girl as well..."

He held up his hand. "Regardless, you should have been warned a head of time about your innate gift. And Nemesis took your mortal parents away from you to set the balance right again." He frowned, "At the same time this does put me in a bit of a spot. I took an oath with my brothers not to sire any more children, and if my brothers found out about who you chose to be their sire, it would put them in grave danger."

What's a sire? I couldn't help but wonder.

Mother started to tremble more violently.

"The ancient laws forbade me from offering my direct protection, nor can I claim them at this time. It just isn't safe for any of us." He softened his tone, "You will have to continue to protect them and train them by yourself. It is my hope that this will eventually change. Keep them naive. The less they know the safer they will be."

"I...I understand."

He kept a mask of neutrality on his face. "It is not my intent to make you suffer Sophie. But..." He raised a brow, "you owe me." Mom's cheeks turned bright red as the tone in his voice made her blush.

"Yes... I would expect that. It's only fair." She stammered.

"Excellent." He nodded and then turned back to the surf as if dismissing us.

My mother stood and took both of our hands. She pulled us back toward our towels. I tried several times to look at the man again, but was unable to.

Finally when she let go of my hand I was able to get a good look at the direction we just came from. The man was gone. No trident, no chair, not even his newspaper. He had simply vanished.


	9. Retreating Out of the City

**Chapter Nine: Retreating Out of the City**

I wouldn't get a chance to think about my dream since I was rudely shaken awake. "Mermaid, we got to go. Something's about to happen." Trent was on the bed next to me.

"What are you talking about?" I looked at the clock, it was three thirty.

"Look!" He rolled off the bed and pulled back the curtain. The sky was filled with an over whelming bright light.

The lights flickered on and off over my head. I didn't pay much attention to it. I figured it had something to do with what was happening outside. Instead I turned my attention on my brother. I told him to go wake Skylar, while I went in search of Lyra.

Her room was next to mine. The lights flickered more intensely as I moved into the bedroom.

Lyra was sitting on the floor with a knife in her hand. She was sticking it into one of the plugs on the wall. A zap of electricity went through the knife and into her.

I was on the verge of screaming for help when I heard her sigh with pleasure. "Ly...Lyra? What are you doing? You know that's dangerous."

Her checks were flushed with embarrassment as she turned towards me. "You weren't supposed to see that..."

"What's not to see, you're only trying to electrocute yourself to death." I crossed my arms in front of my chest.

"You have it all wrong." She sighed and stood. "Notice anything different about me?"

I scanned her over and frowned. Something was different, but... oh dear. "Your cuts and bruises are gone!"

"Water heals you, electricity heals me." She tucked the knife into her belt.

"And Skylar too?" I asked.

Lyra nodded.

Hey, whatever floats their boats. "Cool!"

"You're not going to freak out on me and tell me I'm some kind of demonic monster or anything?" She sounded a bit vulnerable.

"Nope, you're cool." I gave her my best smile. It wasn't every day that I met people who didn't treat me like a freak, so why would I ever want to treat another person like one. "We're leaving in a couple of minutes. Something big is happening in the east. Mom wants us to find our way west as soon as possible."

Within minutes we found ourselves in the elevator heading down to the ground floor. As the doors opened, the sound of a mixed song smacked into us.

"K-R-O-N-O-S" Pause, "KRONOS!" Pause, "KRONOS!"

I poked my head around the corner from the elevator to find about twenty five cheerleaders practicing a routine. They wore red and black uniforms with Scythes and the ancient Greek symbols for Kronos on their shells.

They were dancing, stunting, and tumbling in the lobby. I wondered how they were able to do all of that and never run into each other. Unfortunately, there was no way around them. They were blocking the entry way. We couldn't get around them without getting caught, unless they were completely distracted by their routine.

"This way." Zillah whispered as she grabbed my arm to pulled me away. We rushed down the opposite hallway towards the banquet halls.

"That was really creepy." I whispered.

"Did you get a good look at their legs? One was metal the other looked like it belonged to a donkey!" My brother exclaimed a little too loudly for my liking.

"You're too young to be looking at any girl's legs." My mother frowned as she gave my brother a stern look.

"Yeah... but..." Sponge sighed, " whatever." He said glumly.

Zillah and Lyra exchanged giggles and whispered, "he's a real ladies' man," to each other. I couldn't picture my baby brother being into girls at his age. Last year he complained for a month when he had a girl as a science partner. But now... ugh! I didn't want him growing up so fast.

Once inside a banquet hall we rushed to the back of the dining area and into the kitchen. We paused for about two minutes to grab whatever food we could find and stuffed it into our left over lunch and dinner bags.

"We have to go now!" Zillah rushed from the door that exited into the banquet hall. "They've picked up our sent!"

We left the hotel by the fire exit and then ran towards Columbus Circle. Luckily, the blue giants were nowhere in sight.

We ran for what felt like ages. Any time we thought we saw a group of monsters we hid in doorways or ducked down into subways. When those options weren't available we hid behind cars or pretended we were sleeping.

The demon dogs were a bit harder to fool. They picked up our sent and tended to track us. Each time we came across one Zillah used her special magic to make them 'go home'.

Half way up 38th street we saw commotion in the distance. Four Greek soldiers in with pink and black armor were fighting one of the blue giants.

It swatted one of the warriors into the side of a BMW leaving a huge dent. The warrior crumpled over like a rag doll.

"Retreat!" The largest of the four yelled, his voice echoed off the buildings. He swung a sword that glistened in the rising sunlight.

"What about you?" A female voice cried out as she deflected a blow.

A stream of ice shot out of the giant's mouth. She did a dive roll in order to escape being turned into a popsicle.

"GO! NOW!" He stabbed the monster in the foot. It screamed and blew more ice.

The other two warriors backed off and picked up the fallen one's shoulders. They ran down the block towards 37th Street and disappeared behind the buildings.

I knew we had to help him. We picked up speed as we tried to close the distance between ourselves and the brave warrior.

After several seconds the giant swung a motorcycle at the hero. He flew into a fire hydrant. The water streamed out of control. From what I could tell he was face down in it.

The giant closed in on the hero.

"HEY!" Lyra's voice boomed

The giant turned towards us. With an evil grin he limped his way up the block and roared. Ice shot out of his mouth and froze an SUV several feet to my right.

"Girls, save the soldier, we'll take of the giant!" My mother ordered.

Skylar picked up sewer lid and flung it at him. The monster tried to deflect it, but was too slow. It collided with his stomach sending him flying backwards.

Lyra, Zillah and I ran towards the fallen hero.

"He's dying!" Zillah screamed.

"How can you tell?" Lyra reached him first.

"I just can!"

Lyra turned him over and took off his helmet. "He's our age." She looked back towards us.

Zillah stood next to him, but she didn't look down at him she looked straight ahead. "He says that he can't breathe."

"CPR! We need to perform CPR." I knelt next to him. He had dark hair and square jaw line. Any other time I would have described him as being really hot, but right now that was not on my mind.

"His armor is in the way!" Lyra and I tried to figure out how to get it off of him.

"There isn't any time. His spirit is starting to leave his body." Zillah said sadly.

Lyra turned her electric blue eyes towards me. "Force the water from his lungs."

"What?"

She took my hands and placed them on his chest.

"Will the water from his lungs. Please try." She begged.

I felt a tug in my gut as I tried to concentrate. I closed my eyes and imagined that the water festering in his lungs moved up into his trachea and out of his mouth.

Lyra's fingers were on his pulse. She tried to breath air back into his lungs, then she started chest compressions. Each time she pushed down, the metal responded but pushing into his chest.

"Wait! Please don't go." Zillah spoke to the empty space. She turned towards Lyra. "His heart has stopped, we need a defibrillator."

Lyra breathed into his mouth once again. "A defibrillator..." She clapped her hands together and started to rub them together. She placed them on his chest plate and closed her eyes. Sparks flowed from her hands and scattered across his chest plate.

"Again!" I cried.

She rubbed her hands together again and repeated the process.

"You did it!" Zillah smiled. "His soul has returned to his body."

Coming out of the tunnel a stampede of centaurs made their way towards 37th Street. They looked crazy, like they were heading towards a concert or the circus. Some were wearing colorful wigs, and others were painted like they were going to a football game. I was too tired to be surprised.

One was fixing his paint gun when he looked right at me. He broke away from the herd and trotted towards us. He aimed his gun at the giant, but before he could shoot it dissolved into blue dust.

"Whoa! Guess I'm not needed." He grinned and changed directions.

"Hey!" I called out. "Centaur, please come back, he needs your help."

He turned back towards us.

"He's hurt, we've done what we can to help him, but he's still not waking up."

He moved closer to us. "I'll take him with me." He had a blue tie dyed Party Pony South Dakota chapter shirt on.

Skylar jogged up to us. "Lyra help me put him on his back."

The two of them lifted him up without any difficulty.

The Centaur adjusted his paint gun, and cried "Party Ponies! YAHOO!" He trotted off to join his friends.

"I hope he'll be okay." Lyra whispered. She looked down and tilted her head. The teenager's long sword and a knife glistened in the water.

The sword was beautiful. It was long and slender with a jeweled hilt that glittered in the morning sunlight. On the blade there were letters in ancient Greek. It took several seconds but somehow I knew it said, "Troy."

"Whoa, the Sword of Troy?" Skylar took it from Lyra's hands.

"I didn't think it was real." My mother was the next to examine it. Before she could pass it along it shimmered out of her hands. "Where did it go?"

We looked around but couldn't see it anywhere.

Lyra was still holding the guy's dagger. It wasn't as impressive as the sword, but it was a lot nicer than the daggers we borrowed from the Met. The hilt had a combination of black and pink pearls with a black rubber handle.

"Why don't you hold on to that." I suggested as I picked up his black helmet.

"Thanks, I will." She closed her eyes and moved her lips as if making a promise to herself.


	10. Pushing Through the Lincoln Tunnel

**Chapter Ten: Pushing Through the Lincoln Tunnel**

Traveling through the Lincoln Tunnel was a bit disconcerting. The air felt stretched as if it were just enough to keep all of the sleeping drivers alive. And the exhaust fumes... yuck! They lingered in the air like the nasty cigarette smoke in my neighbor's house. It was enough to make me gag every other minute.

We were lucky that all the cars had been turned off. I could only imagine that if they were still running the entire tunnel would have turned into the world's largest tomb.

Lyra and Skylar looked like their skin had taken on a fresh green tint or maybe it was just the lighting. I couldn't be certain.

"Hey are you two, okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, you don't look so hot." Zillah added as ran her hand down Skylar's arm as she looked up at him with concern.

I couldn't see Skylar's expression at the time, but from what Zillah told me later, he did his best to smile back without looking too ill.

Lyra gave me a, 'please shut up look.' I decided to let the issue drop, for all I knew they were feeling claustrophobic. Surprisingly, I wasn't, which was pretty strange. I normally hated being underground, in tunnels, subways, elevators, and well pretty much anything that restricted my range of motion. So, I had a feeling that perhaps they were like that too?

Trent pulled his shirt over his nose. "This helps to hide the smell, if that's what's bothering you." I could tell my brother was starting to look up to Skylar. He didn't have any male role models in his life, and very few friends.

"Dude, it's not that." Skylar rubbed the back of his head. "I don't know... I just don't feel right."

"Maybe it's something you ate." My brother shrugged.

Lyra sighed. Her color didn't look any better. "I think it's the water." Lyra crossed her arms. "I feel so trapped. Just think the Hudson River is directly above us. What if a monster attacked and damaged the tunnel? We would drown with everyone else."

Skylar shuttered as he closed his eyes.

"I don't know, I kind of like it. You can hear the water moving above us." My brother looked up as if he could see through the ceiling.

"Dude, you're hopeless." Skylar shook his head and then gave my little brother a slight smack on the back.

"What?" Trent just didn't get it. We were in danger and as long as we were in the tunnel, so was everyone else.

My mother gave my brother a pitiful look. The look reminded me of my dream and I began to wonder about that man we met all those years ago. Why did he upset her so much? And did she ever pay him back? Right now wasn't the time to ask. But still... I couldn't help but wonder.

To my left, Lyra was still taking the point position. We followed her through the different rows of cars and up onto the service walk ways. In her hand was the knife she recovered from the water outside the tunnel.

For the most part we walked in silence. We didn't want to be caught by surprise if there were monsters lurking behind cars or hiding out on the tops of SUVs.

Surprisingly, there were no monsters to be found anywhere. I honestly don't know what we would have done if we ran into another giant or something even worse. Maybe those centaurs took care of them? Hopefully that's the case. There was also a ton of shredded vegetation all over the place. I know that wasn't supposed to be there either.

After about an hour we final saw the light. From what I could tell it was only around six in the morning. The strange thing is that as we got closer to the exit, the more it seemed out of reach. Our movements slowed down and I felt like I was being stretched thin.

I thought I was imagining it or perhaps I was just super tired and had just hit the wall.

After a few minutes, the feeling got worse. I looked at the car we were passing, and then back towards the light. We were so close, but why did it feel so far away. My feet felt so heavy like I had weights attached to them and they were pulling me down into quick sand.

We must have struggled like that for a while because when I looked back at that car, I hadn't made any progress.

"We've reached a magical barrier of some kind." Whoa, my words sounded really strange. They were elongated and stretched as if I were listening to my mom's college lectures that someone in her class taped for her when she couldn't make the lecture. She normally played them really slowed down to take notes.

"How are we going to get through it?" Trent responded. His voice also sounded like it was in slow motion.

I tried to think. If we couldn't get through the barrier we would be trapped and would have to possibly turn back. I couldn't let that happen. We've worked so hard to get this point; we had to get through it. Think Meredith, think!

I looked over towards everyone else; they were making the same kind of process.

We were all strong people, especially Skylar and Lyra, but why couldn't we get through this?

Then it hit me.

"I want to try something!" I shouted getting their attention. "We're going to hold hands. Maybe we can push through together!"

"It's worth a shot," Skylar said.

"Skylar, take my mother's hand and Zillah's hand. Mom go on the outside, since you've got to hold on to your sword. Lyra, take Zillah's other hand. Trent take Lyra's hand. I'll go on the outside."

"What about my sword?"

"I'll hold it in my outside hand." I took my sword and shifted it go through my belt. It was uncomfortable, but it would have to do.

"I'll take that now." Trent passed his sword over towards me. I shifted it in my outside hand and then took his free hand into mine.

We joined hands. I could feel our power surging through our line. "On three, push forward!"

"One," Zillah called.

"Two," Lyra joined in.

"Three!" I shouted.

At first nothing happened. We were still unable to break through. I started to scream out of frustration.

Everyone else joined in.

My heart rate decreased for several seconds before it started up rapidly again. We surged forward through the barrier.

It felt like I had just passed through a swimming pool of grape jelly.

Once everyone was through we almost caused a pile up on our own. Each person was pulling according to their own strengths. Hence, we almost fell over each other.

"Did... did we make it?" Trent asked his voice sounded normal. He quickly dropped his hand to wipe it on his jeans.

"I think so," Lyra started to sprint toward the light. "Come on, we're in NEW JERSEY!"


	11. My Brother Takes a Siesta in Rite Aid

**Chapter Eleven: My Brother Takes a Siesta in Rite Aid**

On the New Jersey side of the tunnel, there were no cars, nor were there any signs of people. That seemed a little odd, but understandable since no one would be able to travel through the tunnel.

Our first indication that something was terribly wrong was when we were walking down Kennedy Boulevard East. It was completely vacant. It was like everyone decided to avoid traveling down that road.

"Do you think everyone is asleep on this side as well?" My brother spoke out loud to no one in particular.

"I think that if they were, their cars would be scattered along this road heading into New York." I responded.

"It's like they purposely were detoured out of the way." Zillah looked mystified.

"Maybe they did, and we just haven't gotten to the road block yet," I shrugged.

The sun beat down on us as we walked up the Boulevard. I frowned as I thought that today was going to be a scorcher.

As if he read my mind, Skylar checked his watch. "Uh... hey, umm... Wow... what time do you think it should be?"

I did the math in my head. "About 6:30, I guess..."

"6:15ish," Zillah pulled the numbers out of thin air.

"It's 11:45."

"What?" Lyra took his wrist and examined his watch. "That's crazy!"

"Time might be flowing differently on this side of the river." My mother frowned as she thought of the possibility.

In the distance the heat waves radiated off the pavement.

"Well at least that explains why it's so hot." I said as I whipped the sweat off of my brow. For the first time I wish I was wearing my sunglasses. At least in the city the buildings blocked the direct sunlight, as opposed to walking in the middle of an asphalt road with no tall trees in sight.

"Explains why I'm so hungry." Trent stated.

"If we see something open, we'll stop along the way." My mother replied, "If not we'll just eat what we packed this morning when we get to the car." She placed her hand on Zillah's shoulder, "You are all welcome to stay with us as long as you like."

"Do you really mean it?" I got extremely excited about that idea and forced my developing sense of heat exhaustion to the back of my mind. I've never been to a slumber party, nor have I ever been good enough friends with anyone to invite them over. When I was a little kid, the other kids' parents thought that either their kid would catch stupid from my family or that we were trash because we live in one of the smaller houses in town. Hence, they never let their kids come over to our place. I don't think my mom thought it was a good idea either because it probably would have been too dangerous for them anyway. The only time I got to go over other people's houses is if I had to work on a project for school.

"We..we were just going to hang out in JC and call our mom to see if she could switch her shift with someone going to Newark." Lyra looked at Skylar.

"We really wouldn't want to impose on you Miss. Glew you've all been really great to us allowing us to tag along and everything..." He sounded like he really wanted to stay with us but was too afraid that we would reject them.

"Kids, don't be so silly. My home is open to all of you. I know how hard it is growing up feeling like there aren't any other people out there like you and that no one understands you. I see it in my kids' faces all the time..."

"Thanks mom..." Trent grumbled.

"I take it that your mom changes her shifts a lot?" My mom asked the twins.

They exchanged looks as if trying to communicate how much information they should diverge.

"Yeah..." Lyra said glumly. "We get in trouble a lot at school, especial when weird stuff happens... Half the time we have to change locations that day in order to escape having criminal charges being thrown at us." A crooked grin crossed her lips. "Other times it's Skylar's fault. The girls follow him around in packs, and even some of the teachers flirt with him too. It tends to cause so many problems especially since the guys tend to get offended and then they start throwing punches at him..."

"I wish they would just leave me alone." Skylar said to himself. "I really don't like the attention. It's all too superficial." He sighed, "as a result we're going to be starting our freshmen year enrolled in private schools in Connecticut."

"It would only get worse. You know that." Lyra said to Skylar as she crossed her arms "Plus, it has an opposite effect for me." She looked over at Zillah and me. "The only boys I talked to in middle school were either my lab partners or group members. Even then they tended to act really weird like they expected Skylar to jump out of thin air and beat the living daylights out of them or something like that."

Skylar covered up a guilty smirk with his hand as he pretended to cough. . "Lyra's going to an all-girl school and I'm going to an all boy school. I really don't like being separated like that. We watch each other's backs, and now… it's just going to be weird."

"Connecticut, that's not too far. Do you normally live in New York City?" My brother asked.

"No, we've been living in Houston for about two months." Lyra sighed. "We've lived everywhere from Oslo with our grandparents, to Warsaw, to Hong Cong, to Topeka, to Vancouver, to Juneau and Anchorage."

"That's the great thing about having a flight attendant for a mom, it's easy to move and it doesn't require her having to find a new job." Skylar added in.

"Well, if you ever find yourselves in the metropolitan area, please feel free to give us a call. You're more than welcome to stay in our home," my mother warmly repeated.

"We'd appreciate that." Skylar looked over his shoulder at her.

"What were you doing in New York?" Zillah had a puzzled look on her face.

"Sightseeing." Lyra shrugged as if they went sightseeing all the time.

"So, you were in the city by yourselves?" Trent asked. He looked like he thought that was the coolest thing ever.

"Yes and no. Mom was working the Houston to LaGuardia route. She got us a room at the West Side YMCA so that we could see the sights together when she had her off time." Lyra's voice sounded like she was disappointed.

I gazed over to my left. The Weehawken Cove peacefully opened to the Hudson River, and beyond that lay New York City. It looked like a post card.

It was hard to imagine that the city was under siege and we ran away like... like cowards... No, I told myself, we weren't trained to be monster fighting heroes. We were just really lucky that everyone survived and that no one was fatally wounded.

We walked west onto 15th street for about a block and then turned south on Willow Avenue. That's when we first started to see life. In the middle of the road were cars scattered in their appropriate directions. People were sitting in stoops; some were standing on the sidewalks or crossing the street. At the gas station were motorists getting full service fill ups or walking up to the service window to buy cigarettes. All of these activities were quite normal for a busy city, but the only problem was that everyone looked like they were still as statues.

Clouds of dirty pollution clumped together as they exited the cars's exhaust pipes, but when they reached a certain height dissipated like normal. The cars seemed to be still running, but they were moving at literally a snail's pace. I bet I would have to stand there watching them for hours before they moved more than a couple of feet.

"This must be some real powerful magic. It's one thing to put a city to sleep, and it's another thing to make it move this slowly." Zillah waved her hand in front of a cop that was standing at the corner. He didn't seem to have any reaction to what she was doing.

"I wonder which one is harder to do?" I wondered out loud.

"My guess is this." Skylar pulled Zillah away from the cop. Then in a very low voice to her. "Just because he's moving slow doesn't mean he won't remember you." Zillah repeated for me at a later time. Who knows if she left something out, but it was enough to make her blush while she repeated it to me.

I slowed my steps down just a little so that I could walk next to my mom. "Okay, so we're either operating outside of standard time, or we're the only ones inside standard time. Either way that's going to be a problem."

"I agree." Her grey eyes were darting in all different directions.

Not wanting to be left out, my brother turned around and started walking backwards. "I don't get it; we'll just hop in our car and... oh..."

"Yeah, it's the same reason why we couldn't drive out of New York. Too many cars, and there is the possibility that the car won't even start."

"Ugh! So, what do we do, walk home?" He looked really upset. "Mom, I'm tired, all I want to do is take a nap and play some Wii, or see if Skylar wants to play mythomagic."

"I know Sweetheart, you've been really great, but we're not out of the woods yet." She pointed down the block. "There's a Rite Aid, we'll find something to drink. That should make you feel a bit better."

Trent pursed his lips while clenching his sword. He turned around and tensely marched toward the Rite Aid. I could tell he was on the verge of a tantrum, but was holding back.

While at the Rite Aid we found plenty of drinks, and junk food. Luckily, we were able to enter the store without any problems. My fear was that we would get to the door and it wouldn't open for us.

The air-conditioning did some wonders to lift our moral. Trent calmed down a bit and took a siesta in the middle of the gardening section. Zillah, Lyra, and I played with the makeup. I saw Skylar in the magazine section, and my mom, on the other hand, went shopping. She found packaging tape and bubbles, paper, a first aid kit, and markers.

After a few hours we left the store. My mom paid for her items with her last twenty. I wondered what she was going to do with all of that stuff. She simply stated that we needed to mail back our swords and daggers to the Met before we left Jersey City.

I was a bit disappointed. I've gotten used to my sword, but perhaps it was for the best. When I asked her how she was going to pay to mail the package to the Met she told me that we were going to use our birthday money. She then quickly stated that she would pay us back as soon as we were able to find an ATM that wasn't operating on slow motion.

It took us about another hour to walk through the rest of Hoboken and Jersey City. When we finally got to our SUV we were ecstatic. Even though we couldn't leave we still celebrated. We reached the car alive. Even better, we hadn't been attacked while in New Jersey.

For the millionth time today, I made a dumb statement. "I wonder why we weren't attacked by any monsters."

"Because they're all in New York." Lyra stated and then rolled her eyes before smiling at me.

"Oh." I felt a bit guilty.


	12. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

We waited around for another few hours before eating our dinner. We carefully cleaned our weapons, and waited for mom and Zillah to come back. They needed to find something to mail our swords and daggers back to the Met. Luckily they found a flat screen TV box a couple of blocks up.

Apparently they had discussed what Zillah was planning to do once we got to our house. Mom found out that Zillah had been in a couple of messed up foster homes after her mom died, and promised to try to arrange for her to live with us.

After packaging the weapons, mom had Skylar and Lyra carry the box to the post office, a few blocks over. They wore the gloves from the first aid kit in order to protect their finger prints. Mom hacked into the computer to pay for the delivery. Apparently her Benjamin Franklin glasses helped her to know how to do that type of stuff.

I'm really not sure how long they were gone. Trent was snoring in the back compartment of our SUV while Zillah sat up front listening to my I-pod.

After a while, I laid down on the back seat and fell asleep. In my dreams I saw a ring of monsters circling the Empire State Building. Its defenders were very few, but they were holding their ground. A crazed girl shimmered with a red aura as she dared the monsters to attack her. I wondered what had angered her so badly to try to get the entire army to attack her.

My dream shifted and out of nowhere the scariest looking chariot I could ever imagine appeared. It had to be Hades, no question about it. He was followed by an army of skeleton warriors. They attacked the monsters and sent them into a panic.

Behind Hades, Demeter and Persephone were waving their hands changing monsters into wheat and flowers. I thought that was pretty cool. I'd love to just wave my hand and turn monsters into something cute and fuzzy. They were very beautiful. Demeter looked older, but there was no questioning the amount of grace and wisdom that vibrated off of her. Persephone came to light as she soaked up the sun. She went from being white and pasty to vivid and radiant. They didn't even have to break a sweat to get the job done.

A boy about my age was with them. I wish I had gotten a good look at him, but was unable to do so.

I opened my eyes as Trent was shaking my shoulders. His bright green eyes scanned my face. He was giddy with excitement, "Mermaid! Everyone's back to normal!" Trent laughed. "We're going home!"

* * *

><p>End Notes: Thank you for reading (or rereading) the first installment of this series. Most of the changes that were made were grammatical and I broke down the chapters into smaller pieces. However, there were other slight changes that were made, which will help me take Meredith and her crew in a new direction. Why the new direction? Recently I read both <span>Lost Hero<span> and Son of Neptune and they made me miss vicariously writing as Meredith. So, I've decided to incorporate characters from both books, and plot line clues. So, yeah new direction? My original Camp Half Blood series took place the summer after TLO, and well SN takes place the summer after TLO. So, I'm pushing Meredith's incorporation into Camp Half Blood up a year. This way the current prophesy will already be resolved. (Hopefully all our favorite characters won't get killed in the process! AKA Percy, Annabeth, Nico, Travis, Thalia, etc.) So, the plot lines for the rest of the stories will be very different. Yes, I'll pull some scenes from those stories and incorporate them into the new ones, but they'll likely have minor changes too.


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